LANSING ? Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger said Thursday that House Republicans are “appropriately skeptical” about expanding Medicaid or accepting a $31 million grant from the federal government to help set up a state-federal partnership for a health insurance exchange.
Bolger (R-Marshall) spoke about politics vs. policy on the House floor, education, road funding, taxes and his political future during an interview at his Capitol office with Gongwer News Service. He also said Rep. Pete Lund’s (R-Shelby Township) proposal to revamp how Michigan allocates its electoral votes in the presidential race is something to be strongly considered this year.
He said Medicaid expansion funds could be provided by the federal government, but the state should not become involved in something it cannot sustain. Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the federal government would pay 100 percent of the increased cost until 2017, at which time the federal match rate would be gradually phased down to 90 percent of the cost in 2020. Some 400,000 more people in Michigan would qualify for Medicaid.
“I don’t sense politics, I sense appropriate skepticism, appropriate concern,” he said of House Republican thinking on the issue. “I think we’ve seen the federal government’s pattern, their mode of operation is to dangle carrots and get people hooked on those new programs and then shove the responsibility for funding that to the state. There were people who debated Medicaid originally and people scoffed when they worried how much of the state budget it would take up. You look at the state budget today and it turns out their worries were well placed.”
Governor Rick Snyder is expected to announce his recommendation on the issue in his February 7 recommendation on the 2013-14 fiscal year budget.
Another major decision coming soon for Bolger and House Republicans is whether to authorize the spending of s $31 million grant awarded by the federal government to help set up the health insurance exchange. House Republicans blocked legislation to create a purely state-run exchange last year, including federal funding to begin work on it.
Bolger said the concern comes from the strings that may be tied to the grant money and if the state will eventually have to pay it back.
“Ultimately, the question of my caucus is how do we increase the affordability and access to health care?” He said. “How do patients and doctors remain in control of health care? The Supreme Court and the election have demonstrated that we will have an exchange in Michigan, but the question is: what kind of exchange?”
On another key health care topic, Bolger said when revisiting the Blue Cross Blue Shield legislation, Republicans and Democrats will be hoping for “another bite of the apple” by adding more into the bill. He said he was surprised Snyder vetoed it, since there was ongoing communication with his office regarding language and content of the legislation and an assumed agreement of the final product – but there was individual details that caused concern in the end.
“There’s a realization that we have to, but not necessarily an excitement that we need to,” he said about revisiting the legislation.
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